Jan. 19: The Obama Inauguration Marathon Grips Washington, D.C.

These last several days in Washington, D.C., filled with walking and running around the National Mall, have felt strangely like the days preceding a big marathon. Sunday and Monday, the Mall was crammed with vendors--like those at a marathon expo--selling their logo gear. None of this stuff was trademarked in any way, I don't think, and there certainly were no crackdowns on the vendors as far as we could tell. As a result, they were hawking an almost infinite variety of Obama t-shirts, hats, and pins. We even got lured into a couple of purchases; prices were very reasonable.

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Off in the shadows stood a flotilla of Porta Potties, enough to put the New York City Marathon or any other marathon to shame. Given that the biggest marathon attracts around 40,000 runners, and some people are estimating the Mall will fill with one-hundred times that number Tuesday morning, you can see that the Porta-Potty industry is the first to feel the Obama stimulus.

Monday morning I ran a leisurely 70 minutes around the Mall, the Capitol and the White House. Mainly I was trying to scope out where we'll be standing Tuesday morning--my wife, my brother and me. We have "tickets" but so do 240,000 others, and as far as I can tell we're going to be standing a good 400 to 600 yards from the Capitol. It seems our best bet is to arrive early, and try to position ourselves close to one of the JumboTrons dotting the Mall. (We got tickets only because my wife applied for them last May, in a fit of Obama optimism. That apparently put us at the head of the line.)

Late Monday afternoon we picked up our tickets from Pennsylvania congressman Charlie Dent. He was there in the office, along with his mother, inviting everyone to linger, have tea, have a cookie. So we did. My wife asked him if his building had a good gym. He said it did, and he ran 4 miles on the treadmill there every other morning. On his off days, he plays fierce paddleball games with a fellow congressman he described as being a strong opponent of earmarks. "But that doesn't stop him from giving me 'rearmarks' in our matches," said Dent. I don't think this was the first time he's used the bad pun.

On my morning Mall run, thinking the kinds of things you think in historic situations such as this one, my mind flitted to a man named Phil Fenty. You could say he's a distant friend. I've met Phil once or twice, we share certain interests. Phil's an African American distance runner married to a white woman, Jen, who spent her early working years as a teacher in the D.C. public school system. In 1984, the couple opened Washington's first specialty running store, a Fleet Feet store that's still in operation. It became an early center of the running community in D.C., and has retained that position. Apparently Phil still works the floor some days.

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This mixed-race couple, same as Barack Obama's parents, have several talented children. None have reached Obama's national standing, but one is close. Adrian Fenty, just 37, was elected mayor of D.C. two years ago, after campaigning on foot through all parts of the city. I'm sure his parents never believed this could be possible when Adrian was born. But he's good at covering great distances, this Fenty. Last year he ran two marathons in 3:37 and 3:40.

Tuesday will be another marathon day. We'll have to get up ridiculously early and walk a long way through the frigid city, hoping for a decent place to see the spectacle. But of course that effort pales next to the long struggle of African Americans in this country. In at least one sense, their ultramarathon finally ends tomorrow, Jan. 20, 2009. Nike once declared, in a different vein: "There is no finish line."

That phrase has much truth in this situation. Obama himself has stated the same, saying we still face many difficult days ahead. Still, this is one finish line we're all thrilled to see. It's nice to have it behind us. Now we just have to keep moving forward.

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